July 02, 2016
New Jersey Governor Chris Christie has issued an executive order on Thursday to direct approximately $100 million in spending items to be temporarily reserved.
The announcement was made Friday in response to the state legislature's "inability to responsibly budget for the State’s existing health care costs or force the enactment of common sense, reasonable health benefit reforms," the Office of the Governor said.
The executive order will affect nearly $54 million in transitional aid to municipalities for Fiscal Year 2017 and nearly $46 million in social programs.
Camden, Patterson, Trenton, Union City, Atlantic City, Asbury Park, Harrison, Kearny, Nutley, Penns Grove and Salem received transitional aid in Fiscal Year 2016.
The freeze will also affect a variety of social programs, including Sexual Violence Prevention and Intervention Services, Domestic Violence Prevention Services, Boys and Girls Clubs of New Jersey and the State Commission on Cancer Research.
"Failure to exercise any of these powers risks the State potentially lacking resources necessary to maintain a responsible fund balance while providing for essential State services and basic operations of State government for Fiscal Year 2017, potentially causing immediate adverse impacts on the residents of the State,” Governor Christie said. “The legislative majority wants to thoughtlessly spend down the State's surplus by $160 million. Worse, however, is their shameless inclusion of a $250 million phantom savings in public employee and retiree health care costs, which I called for in February but the Legislature did absolutely nothing to embrace, negotiate or achieve. Those ‘savings’ were penciled in on paper but completely nonexistent.”
The funds will be restored when public employee health care savings are enacted, Gov. Christie said.
